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Ignite! Waterloo

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I have been meaning to write a post about Animoto for a long time. Animoto, in their words, "automatically produces beautifully orchestrated, completely unique video pieces from your photos, video clips and music. Fast, free and shockingly easy." I'd seen it out there on the Interwebs, and had even watched a few finished videos, but today was the first day in a while that I've had a chance to give it a try for myself. I give it 4.5 out of 5 Apples (the ease of use and elegance scale). 

It took about 10 minutes to go from heading to Animoto to receiving an email that my video was ready for consumption. I had to take a few minutes off of the actual time since I didn't have the images ready to go (nor did I really know what photos I'd use), but creating a free 30-second video was about as easy as it gets. 

I uploaded 15 pictures quickly and easily (thankfully all at once and not one-at-a-time like many other photo uploading procedures), into their project organizer. With this, you can set the sequence of the images, add text titles and subtitles and other functions like rotating pictures, shuffle the order, and "spotlight" an image. You can use your own photos, choose from their stock images, or get images from another site if you use Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Picasa & Photobucket.

The next step is adding music. The site guides you through the process very well with BIG tabs on the left to show you the order of production. You can select music that they have, or upload your own. They do have quite a good selection of different genres of music with enough options to satisfy most tastes and moods, but not so many choices as to overwhelm. Since I was showing a lot of scenery, I went with a nice classical piece from Mozart.

The next step is the easiest of all... When you tell Animoto to produce your video the robots, or Oompa-Loompas, or the dancing brooms from Fantasia look at your photos, text and music and create a totally unique movie from what you give it. They claim that each one is different - I obviously can't confirm that, but the product is quite engaging and fun. They email you a link to your video that you can then share with your friends, or send to your teacher to put the rest of the class to shame (unless they TOO used Animoto).

A free account will allow you to make 30 second videos. You can purchase a "credit" for 3$ to make a single full-length video, or you can purchase a one-year "All You Can Eat" account for $30. Animoto does allow you to apply for a free pro account for "a cause". I have applied for one for educational purposes... I'll let you all know if education is a good enough cause or not.

All in all, it's a great, easy and free alternative to the tired PowerPoint presentation. 30 seconds is a little short to effectively get a point across (but that might be a good limitation for some student and teacher projects), and $3/$30 is just too much for access for even one classroom full of kids. The Great-Easy-Free trifecta is one that I am constantly looking for to share with my teachers. Animoto comes very close to that hallowed ground.

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Ok, so this is a GIS blog, so why am I sharing an article about presentations? Well, at some point in our careers, I’m sure we’ll be in the position to give a presentation, so the information shared in this article is something that anyone can benefit from. Also, Mr. Sawa’s comments about visuals really caught my attention since any presentation a GIS professional does should be positively filled with visuals.

This article helps prove why good basic cartographic skills should be employed when creating a map, especially if that map is submitted in a map gallery or going into a PowerPoint presentation. Our maps should be created to represent the data we are showing in a fair, clear, and concise manner. Probably one of the most difficult tasks is to make the data clear enough for anyone to read whether they have knowledge in the subject matter or not. When you put your map in a PowerPoint presentation that is projected onto a larger screen it can became even more difficult to keep your map clear.

Often times projecting your map makes detail fuzzy, this is why bold colors and lines are necessary in order for your viewers to read your map. And simplify! Simplify your map so you have room to make lines bolder without interfering with neighboring features – this often goes along with keeping your map concise. I can’t recall how many presentations I’ve seen where the authors did not consider what their presentation looks like when projected on a big screen. It’s a shame too, because so many good messages are lost on poor quality maps. For this reason, you should always, always, always test out your exported map images on the projector to see how your audience will ultimately view your maps.

Mr. Sawa also mentions using contrasting colors, yellow or other light colors similar to it, should not be used on a white (or other light colored) background, this would be another peeve of mine. When viewed through a projector, it is nearly impossible to see. I’m actually not a fan of using those light colors in presentations anyway, but when used on a black background, for example, it could be effective.

Exporting resolution is probably the most common “mistake” I see on PowerPoint map images. These are the images that look pixilated or fuzzy. This is a relatively simple problem to fix since you can change the resolution to a higher dpi value when exporting your map from ArcMap to create a higher quality image that displays nicer in PowerPoint.

Remember to keep your maps in mind during your presentation brainstorming. Hopefully doing this will save you work down the road when you preview your presentation and discover your lines aren’t thick enough or your colors are too light. Also, as with any presentation, you should practice running through your content and this includes reviewing all your slides and graphics not only on your computer but also on a projector ot whatever medium your audience will be viewing the presentation through. The best advice I’ve ever been given regarding presentations: Put yourself in your audiences’ shoes. It really will sort out some of the little hiccups that can take a lot away from your presentation.

Good luck!